carol: welcome to "bloomberg businessweek" i'm lisa abrohm wits in for carol massar and david gura. in this week's special interview issue we talk to some of the top you know what i mean business. head of i.b.m. talks about where she sees the company positioning itself in the a.i. revolution. we talk to the head of microsoft about where this company will go in its middle age and we talk to the beatles great ringo star and why that band benefited by not being part of the digital revolution. that and more ahead on

bloomberg businessweek." leasta: i'm here with assistant managing editor jim ellis. jim, you are the brainchild behind this edition. you came one all these ideas of who to get and how to frame this. what was your thinking behind this issue? jim: well, i knew if i was going to do this i wanted to do it with people i wanted to hear from. so how do we -- from billionaires to just regular people together, the best way to do that was change. everybody sort of responds to change whether it's a change in their business, politics, so i use do so that as my trigger and that led me to what the changes were. whether in business, -- whether in public life, the non-politics and the changes of

the way life is which is why i got alicia garza from black lives matter. lisa: one thing carlos slim, mexico's rit67est -- >> that was an interesting interview because so many people want to talk to carlos about being the richest man in the world but he has this view that we should only work three days in a week because that frees up jobs that will keep other people employed. he is worried about this notion that productivity is growing so fast that more and more people are going to be deemed unnecessary so his idea is if you cut down the workweek you can actually prolong the retirement age and by not having to pay retiree benefits for much, much longer.

lisa: you also talked to -- >> he is the big brain. basically he is the c.e.o. of geep deep mind which is the company google bought to basically get the smartest people in artificial intelligence under their belt. what their charge is, is to figure out how to get machines to learn. it's amazing. they basically are looking for ways to make intelligent machines and that will change the way that many things that we do happen. i mean, basically that will free us up to do other things. i don't know whether that's ting bonbons but they have the team of researchers there trying to figure out how the human brain works and can you put it in a machine? lisa: so maybe you have to only make the bed a couple times and then we can't leave out jenny

are metty, the head of i.b.m., what did you think of the interview? jim: i thought it was nteresting because with ginni, i.b.m. is the ultimate technology company. from back in the day when scales were considered technology, and it's interesting because unlike a facebook or google, she sort of views i.b.m. as technology that is more serious. that you come there for a an applied technology for life-changing things like keeping the air traffic control system in flow and banking systems together. it's a piece of everything and now with the shift towards artificial intelligence like watson, it's preparing for the future yet again it's re-inventing itself. lisa: i spoke with matt chapman and this is what he said. matt: she joined as an engineer

working on banking and insurance stuff in the middle 1980's. max: and was promoted in 2012 to the big role. lisa: ginni rometty has been with the company for 25 years and this is an old company especially compared with the googles and facebooks of the world. max: i.b.m. is 105 years old and they are trying to be a little more start-up y. sort of ginni in an open-plan building in downtown manhattan and not what you think about when you think of i.b.m. in new york and they are promoting this sort of 24i7k where watson is talking to bob dylan and other celebrities. so they are trying to be, like, cool, i guess.

sa: you, max chafkin asked what her political views were and especially with -- coming out and saying she was for clinton. max: i asked her who she was going to sthrothe vote for in 2016 and she said i.b.m. works for all leaders so i understand because they have to sort of get along with everybody. i do think if she were to endorse, it would be a big thing as yet another sort of prominent business leader getting into the fray. she specifically brought up brazil saying i.b.m. had been there for 100 years and worked with everybody and brazil is like in a special mess so if they are not willing to weigh in there it's hard to see how she would weigh in, in our

election. lisa: i was struck as i read your fantastic interview as she as the views i.b.m. grown-up in a not in a pejorative way but said people come here because they want serious things. max: it's an interesting spin because i.b.m. is still building these back office things for like delta airlines but the point of view she is saying is you could work at google and work on an app or move jet planes around. that's an interesting pitch but the other thing is this cognitive computing platform, if it plays out it could be bigger than siri. her view is siri and alexa and natural processing things we are using in our everyday lives are sort of not impressive

compared to what they have cooking. lisa: there are so many photographs of top people in this issue. air lk with photo editor yell brown about what it was like to be in the same room with these people. >> she has people around and they were sort of conscious of how we were going to rep re-sent her being a woman c.e.o. and because our stories have been a little more critical of i.b.m. and the company. so they were a little bit hesitant. so i think initially it was hard, and then once she got there i think she was really, you know, warm and amenable to being photographed. ariel brown: so yes, we got some sort of natural responses from her. it was nice.

lisa: what were they going for? air yell: i think it's always tricky working with p.r. people, because they are -- they always have ideas of how they want someone to be portrayed but then your job on the editorial side is sort of to portray something more honest so i think what you see in these photographs are a more honest portrayal picture of her and of a c.e.o., not just as a woman c.e.o. but of a c.e.o. of a company. lisa: and during the photo shoot did you get sense -- he was counting down the seconds? air yell: i think most c.e.o.'s are sort of always counting down the seconds but overall they were very gracious. it was one of our earlier cover shoots and we sent a fantastic

photographer who shot a lot of poignant covers for us and who shot the twitter cover for us and some other things and so i think they were very gracious in giving us sort of the time that he had. lisa: up next microsoft c.e.o. sasha in a jella on making his cloud first and adam silver on how social media is changing the game. all that ahead on "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

lisa: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." 'm lisa abram wicks in for carol massar and david gura.

the radio. us on in this week's special interview issue bloomberg reporter dena bass sat down th c.e.o. from microsoft satch i don't know in a della. tracking thing 234s issouri life and one thing satya nadella tracks is time spent in meetings and at home and all things personal and business life. one thing he is trying to figure out is if he is using his time efficiently so he tracks how much time he spends utside the company because a c.e.o. needs to be doing things

outside but inside and tracks how much time he spends in meetings and microsoft and metrics are working on how productive these meetings are so not just how many but are they worthwhile and are there too many layers of things in one meeting and how many meetings get spawned from one meeting so if you set up a meeting how many other meetings do people have to go to? lisa: i bet they deal with -- you asked him and talked senseably it seemed about how he plans to change the culture at microsoft. can you explain? dina: sure. c.e.o. the over as ethos at microsoft was a little beatdown. they had seen ethings but failed to capitalize on things and meetings was something

people complained about. people felt they were going from meeting to meeting and the brock cri was moving too slowly and there was a lot of concern at how particularly the -- one of the key lessons for him has en from a thing called "mindset" and folkses on that somebody who is a learn it all is ahead of somebody who is a know-it-all. so you had to have this -- outlook of learning. he said he comes home every night and thinks what did i do today where i was too fixed, to stuck and unwilling to learn and open up my mind and sort of feels that if he can makes the himself and fix it on a company level, the company's culture would be in a much better place.

lisa: adam silver, the nba commissioner sat down and talked about how basketball was planning to change how it broadcast itself. i talked with ira a little bit about that interviewer. ira: i thought i'd talk to him -- i love to watch basketball and they get stopped for time-outs so often, and i know they need them but i thought if they had more and fewer and kept they want -- i brought that to him and he said, look, we are aware of the problem. we are working on it but we are not sure exactly how the fix it. they have done some things i pointed out. i didn't get to include it all in what i printed but they have, for instance, made the time a time-out takes standardized. you would have thought this would have been long ago but they actually used to have coaches and tv partners would push them and they would get

longer and longer and a minute 1/2 would be the time-out now they have a clock in the arena and everybody knows and it's standardized. so they have been working on it but they know it's something people complain about. lisa: very diplomatic answer, when he is dealing with the union, a lot of people are concerned about a possible sort of freeze or playing in disruption this fall. did you get a sense from him in how far he was in negotiating? ira: well, there's an agreement that has an opt out for both sides this year so it could be as early as january if either side opts out and they can't agree. he said he and the ewan jan the new executive director michele roberts are informally talking now and expressed a lot of confidence that there would not be a lockout. now, of course at this point he

would say that. i mean, there's a lot of money that just came in, especially to the new tv deals with tnt and abc that have seen a huge revenue boost and therefore a huge increase in contracts being handed tout players so serve getting rich but there's a lot of tension about player movement and the size of these contracts. so we'll see. lisa: next, are you better off stuffing your mattress with cash instead of investing? and melissa mire in turning yahoo around and staying with the times. ♪

lisa: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." i'm lisa abramowicz. in for carol massar and david gura. for the first time in recorded

history, zero and negative interest rates are the status quo. i sat down with economics ed xx peter coy to talk about what the implications were. why would anyone in their right mind pay a government or bank money in order to have the privilege of lending to them? peter: it is strange and the first time in world history it's ever happened and the fact we are asking this question is entirely reasonable. the answer? you will make a loan, say let's say it's a bond and the loan in the form of a bond where people are, you're giving somebody $1,000 and they are going to pay you back $990. you would do that because you might have even less money if you didn't do it. so for example, if you had deflation of 2%, and your bond

lost only 1%, well, then you're better off than you would have been. lisa: so the other scenario would be if the stock market and everything blew up and you're just going get your money back or something back and that's better than 2340g, so why would that stimulate rowth? peter: it would stimulate growth. the theory, not that i agree with it or not but if you can borrow, the lower the rate you can borrow the greater incentive you have to borrow. and because projects that were not reasonable to do at 07 might become reasonable to do at negative 1%. conversely if you were saving money before, hoarding it somewhere, now, you will think maybe you should go for a riskier project that you wouldn't go before, because when they are giving you so

much on your reasonable risk it gives you -- lisa: so for companies and governments encourages them to borrow cheaply to do things and for investors it encourages them to lend to potentially more specktive borrowers just to get more income. so what's the verdict? how is it working? peter: well, you never can be sure. you can't run the same experiment twice. we don't have the same country running negative rates and not running negative rates so you can get a clue on well, how strong is the economy. so the u.s. that has positive rates is doing better than europe and japan that has negative rates so that would be an argument that it's not working but again you don't know how bad europe and japan would have been had they not tried negative rates. lisa: up next making sure america's tech giants are

playing by the rules and marissa mayer's next career move. ♪

>> welcome to "bloomberg businessweek." i am coming from the inside headquarters of the magazine, and we speak to black lives matter founder, and also a fashion designer who believes people can come in all shapes and sizes. and ringo starr and why he voted for brexit? all of that coming up in "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

haslinda: i am here with managing editor who came up with this issue. there are so many must reads in this issue. the one thing i have to mention is tony fernandez. his dream was always to become the head of an outline. >> that was a funny anecdote where he says, i wanted to know, -- he said he wanted to be an airline executive and tell that to his father, and his father said, hey, if you do better than the doorman at the hilton, i am ok with it. be thehat child was to head of an airline industry? [laughter] >> this is a man who loves airlines. 11 airplanes. when he was a kid, he would go to the airport in muslim taking off. -- when he was a kid, he would go to the airport and want to them take off.

het he has decided to do was saw what happened to easyjet and southwest airlines and figured, why not do the same thing for asia and bring low-cost carriers in. his comment was, there are only 6% of the people in malaysia that actually own. they are now the largest discount carrier in asia. he does not like eating dressed up and he does not -- he does not like getting dressed up. >> you also talked to margaret. talking disney and amazon. >> that is one of the reasons i was interested in her. wrong a lot of american companies over the polls. it what is interesting about the interview is said it is not about being american, it is

about the idea that companies are leaders in a particular space. even when they do very good business, you have to be very careful they are not using their power to keep other new intervenors -- new innovators from picking up. about whenn -- what people have really great service like google, why stop them? she says what is to say that the good service up today could hold us back? stopu had allowed them to our companies from coming up, the world would be worse for it. chick, do weaft think we will see driverless car? >> this is a man who has car guts. he's to be afford, he used to be the guy who ran hyundai in the u.s.. he has true car cred.

he thinks he won't think about the brand of cars, but transitioning from point a to point the --point eight to point b. you will make transportation the issue as opposed the mystical 1950's view of sitting around and waiting. lisa: so why have a car when you can have a dry -- of course, you talk to yahoo!' ceo who is not had an easy time of it. >> she has had a tough time running a company trying to turn around a company at the same time she was trying to sell it. surprisingly, she was able to devote. >> do you think she did it effectively? did she seem beaten-down? >> she thinks it is a good experience for her and she is extremely -- he is actually hard

worker. >> i talked about the challenges that -- i talked about max. >> you met with melissa myers, one of the most written about women in technology. where did you meter? >> at the yahoo! headquarters after a week after the announcement that yahoo! would be selling itself to verizon, which is a capstone on this very controversial four-year tenure that she had a ceo. >> did she seemed stressed out? >> she seemed more relaxed and sort of more comfortable than i think i have seen her in any interview on tv or whatever. he seems somewhat, i guess, pleased with the outcome and also maybe just that piece. been doing battle with all of these different constituencies, mailing investors, but also warmer yahoo! employers -- employees

quarterbacking everything she has done. all the while, yahoo!'s performance has been for. it has been difficult. she kind of look like to come out on the other end and the like it was a reasonable outcome. lisa: did you leave the intergroup -- interview coming differently about her the her? >> we did a cover story about all the things that have gone wrong. there are things that have gone right in there is a strong argument to be made that it was an uphill climb, and that she did as well as she could have done given all of the adversities that the company faced. when i thought was most interesting coming out of the interview was talking to her about what it has been like to run yahoo! while also trying to sell it, while also having three kids, which he did while she was

going through this crazy thing. it is just sort of an amazing period and any ceo's life. i doubt this is the last we will see of her. i think it will be one of these formative experiences in her career. sonialisa: talk about that. . she said she plans to say that yahoo! some people say that sounds realistic -- unrealistic. >> they have to unwind the asian assets, alibaba, which is the best thing that ever happened to yahoo! and the worst thing because it basically ended up swapping the iconic internet company. i think she will at least stick around for, i don't know, six must to a year, overseeing some of the transition to verizon, trying to get things figured out on the alibaba side. at some point, she will move on. she says she places verizon

indefinitely. i don't know what indefinitely means, but i had asked her what you see yourself in five years? she said something interesting that she felt like she developed a lot of skills as ceo and she would like to use those. which to me, i hear that and i think, will she wants to run another company. there had been rumors and she was going to do some sort of investing thing. i think that is still a possibility. five years from now, she will probably be a ceo of a company. lisa: you talk about that incredibly busy moment of her life with three children and juggling yahoo!'s assets. do you have a sense of exactly do youeen that lack oh -- have a sense of exactly how she did that? >> she is a very hard worker. i asked her what she learned google? she said that larry insert gay are amazing thinkers -- she said that larry and sergei are amazing thinkers. people forget we worked

superhard and google. for years, she did all nighters every single week. jobs, meaningfive basically running yahoo! and given that these investors, having children. it was just a work like crazy. lisa: marissa mayer is known for her fashion sense and she is no trigger to photo shoots. i talked with the editor at the editor -- i talked with the editor and business week. they very graciously and kindly agreed to let us shoot her. it really feels like a real picture of someone who has been in the news a lot and in a more natural way of representing her. lisa: let's take a look at the alicia garza pictures. she comes across looking very strong, very focused, and very and control. >> we did two shoots a family

first photographed her, it was very early in the portfolio and we would not sure who would be covered and who would not be covered. when it was decided that she was going to be one of our five cover personalities, we approached her again to do a shoot. this time, and studio, really wanted something that again was humanizing,still and approachable, and i just think that portrait is so striking. garzaup next, what alicia hope to accomplish with black lives matter. the life of a struggling musician in the streaming age. ♪

>♪ lisa: welcome back to bloomberg businessweek her. you can find us on the radio on

sirius xm channel 119. in this special issue, alicia anda, long-time activist known as the cofounder of the black lives matter movement, this down and talk to us about what exactly inspired her to start this. here she is in her own words. >> nobody listens when you are yelling. you know? people tune out. i do. i say, they are being really loud right now. i will come back and when the are calmer. hopefully, people are leaning in to try to hear what is going on. when they lean back out again, hopefully they have some stuff to think about. garza and i amia one of the cofounders of black lives matter.

matter in lives response to black people saying that black lives matter is actually saying that black lives matter. black lieshat don't don't matter. we are not just a movement that is focused on police violence and police brutality. the reality is, for black people in this country, we have been played by a pervasive and dominant system when we look at issues of housing, employment, education, health care, and health care access, black people are at the bottom of those disparities.

over the last three years, we have grown from a hashtag to an international organizing network. a lot of people think that organizing is being in the streets with a bullhorn and turning up. [laughter] organizing is not that at all. none the organizing is glamorous, but some of it is rewarding. you can build a world were all eyes that are together if we acknowledge the ways in which today all lives do not matter. lisa: i spoke with reporter josh adelson. >> the phrase black lives matter that alicia garza is a cocreator of goes back to the night that george zimmerman was exonerated after killing trayvon martin. it began with a facebook land or a love letter to black people. a rantcribed it as both and a love letter that tried to push back on some of the

conversations she saw people having about this saying it is too much, either responding to george zimmerman being exonerated eyes saying, of course this happened, responding by saying well, and black people just behaved differently, they would not be subject to this kind of violence. that letter turned into a hashtag. she come up with her to co-creators, put it out and encouraged people to start organizing around it to use it in their work if they found it useful. only toonnect it not police violence, but to a broader set of issues around systemic and structural racial inequality in united states. lisa: as you pointed out, racism is a very nuanced, sort of evil. she says, even great people can perpetuate the system that sort of insurers institutionalizes racism. what is he asking for? they are pushing for changes

in a range of policies and the economy, and criminal justice. one of the parts of our conversation was the discomfort and ambivalence that she and other activists have been pushing for the criminal justice system to be part of the solution to racist violence. she called out hillary clinton for not fully supporting the $15 minimum wage as something that would make a difference in this fight to make all lives matter to make black lives matter. lisa:, redefining beautiful. when you are a fashioning designer -- why ringo starr was all in for brexit.

♪ lisa: welcome back to bloomberg

businessweek. i'm lisa abramowicz and for carol massar and david gore. fashion designers using fashion to make a bigger statement. i talked with bloomberg reporter about what it was like to talk with him. >> he was born in singapore and grew up in nepal. before moving here to new york. over the past two years, he has gotten really popular on red carpets with celebrities, and he got into mainstream america with a fashion line in collaboration with target. -- one thing that was interesting is the feeling throughout the whole thing that he fundamentally felt like an outsider from his youth, even coming here. he seemed not to be mainstream, and yet here he is, very mainstream.

can you talk about that? -- he toldme that he me that when he was growing up in nepal, he felt like an outsider in school. so he went to an all boys school. he always felt like part of the group. that he was an outsider. that he did not get along. and really affected his psyche. overtimeold himself that, you know what? the popular opinion is not always the right one. and if he wants to pursue his streams and do what he wants, that is the way he should go. >> how has that influenced the way that he works? >> they definitely influences his creative process. he never wanted to be known as an ethnic designer because of his background, but he wants to say -- stay true to it and remain global. -- a common occurrence

in fashion is that a designer gets it and hold into something that they are good at. a good mainstream example of something like that is, let's say, ugg boots. they have a lot of trouble selling things that are not ugg boots. from one thing, it is hard to pull yourself away. one thing that he also does is designed for lane bryant which is a plus size designer. he talked that -- he talked to you about that designing for people who are a little bigger. what did he have to say? undeserved --an it is such an underserved market, the plus size market. lane bryant is trying to get more of these fashion collaborations with people. he said there is definitely a

ism in fashion,ze not selling people those goods. , think that comes from decades top-down, information coming from fashion magazines and the industry and designer saying that this is what beauty is supposed to be. these days come the conversation is changing every moment. and you are seeing a lot more acceptance of different body types. this is a conversation he wants to have. lisa: ringo starr is unapologetic when it comes to why he voted for britain to leave the european union. i talked with lucas shaw about his interview. >> he was one of the more approachable celebrities i have encountered. he goes to capital records every year for his birthday. he says down for a series of interviews with different reporters putting myself. i was lucky enough to be in that

group. the first thing he asked me was about my shirt. i was wearing a polo shirt that i had gotten at coachella music festival and it has bears wearing spacesuits and the popular raccoons. so he's been a couple of minutes talking about that. [laughter] lisa: the thing you talked about was britain's vote to enter the european union. i was surprised to giving the fact that the beatles were come all youssive need is love, and ringo starr said he voted for brexit. >> yeah, i was surprised by that, too, which is why i brought it up. i brought up the streaming business. ringo no longer is considers the u.k. at home. the u.s. is his home and he is lived here for a wild. -- a while. the europeane that

union has hurt the u.k. he has this belief in unity in helping one another out. considering everyone's's i interest. all the different countries are looking out for themselves and that is led to that policy. lisa: he seemed pretty negative on the music industry. was that your sense as well? >> he was pretty negative client. if you have -- he was pretty negative on it. if you have been in the music industry for a wild, you tend to glorify what it was before. likeif you are a big shot the beatles, there is a sense of camaraderie with your other artists. he does not feel that way anymore. byproductow that as a of how he feels in his life for the byproduct of the music industry is something he does not like. lisa: bloomberg business week is online and on stands right now. we will be back next week.

♪

♪ >> coming up on "bloomberg best" the stories that shape the week in business around the world. walmart makes a deal to add online strength. clinton layout economic blueprints. >> upon taking office, i will issue a temporary moratorium on new agency regulations. >> we will work with both parties to pass the biggest investment in new, good paying jobs since world war ii. >> earnings season continues and will take a tour behind the numbers. >> the chinese consumer is very, very healthy. >>